1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus for recording data on a disk medium.
2. Related Background Art
When moving image data and audio data are recorded on a disk medium, in general, a massive data stream obtained through continuous recording of data is recorded in areas on a disk located separate from each other with the massive data stream being divided into a plurality of parts (extents). In a case of reproducing a moving image and sound, data of which is distributed among a plurality of extents, it takes a time (seek time) that a head moves between the extents in order to reproduce the data. Thus, when the extent is small in size, an operation for reading out data is delayed for an operation for outputting the reproduced data. As a result, the data may not be continuously reproduced in some cases. Then, heretofore, in order to ensure the continuous reproduction, a minimum recording unit (i.e., continuous data area (CDA)) was determined irrespective of a bit rate of a data stream and the number of defective blocks.
However, since even if the data is recorded in any of the defective blocks, such data can not be normally reproduced, during the recording of a moving image data, a processing for skipping a defective block (skip processing) is executed. For this reason, a problem occurs that if the number of defective blocks is increased due to deterioration in quality of disk, then an amount of effective data contained in the CDA is reduced to make the continuous reproduction impossible. Moreover, there is also encountered a problem that since the CDA is determined on the assumption that the bit rate of the data stream is at a maximum, when the bit rate is small, an unnecessarily large recording unit is required.